Reflection for the Day

[Ken L]

February 26 Reflection of the Day

“What if…” How often we hear these words from newcomers to the Gamblers Anonymous Program. How often, in fact, we tend to use them ourselves. “What if I lose my job?” “What if my car breaks down?” “What if I get sick and can’t work?” “What if my child gets hooked on drugs?” What if – anything our desperate imaginings can project? Only two small words, yet how heavy laden they are with dread, fear, and anxiety. The answer to “What if…” is, plainly and simply, “Don’t project.” We can only live with our problems as they arise, living one day at a time.

Am I keeping my thoughts positive?

Today I Pray
May I grow spiritually, without being held back by anxieties. May projected fears not hobble my pursuits or keep me from making the most of today. May I turn out fear by faith. If I will only make a place for God within me, the presence of that Higher Power will remove my fears.

Today I will Remember.
I can only borrow trouble at high interest rates.

[Ken L]

February 27 Reflection of the Day

If I live just one day at a time, I won’t so quickly entertain fears of what might happen tomorrow. As long as I’m concentrating on today’s activities, there won’t be room in my mind for worrying, I’ll try to fill every minute of this day with something good – seen, heard, or accomplished. Then, when the day is ended, I’ll be able to look back on it with satisfaction, serenity, and gratitude.

Do I sometimes cherish bad feelings so that I can feel sorry for myself?

Today I Pray
That I will get out of the self-pity act and live for today. May I notice the good things from dawn to nightfall, learn to talk about them and thank God for them. May I catch myself if I seem to be relishing my moans and complaints more often than appreciating the goodness of my life.

Today I will Remember.
Today is good.

February 28 Reflection of the Day

We have learned from others in Gamblers Anonymous that the chief activator of our defects has been self-centered fear – mainly fear that we would lose something we already possessed or that we would fail to get something we demanded. Living on the basis of unsatisfied demands, we obviously were in a state of continual disturbance and frustration. Therefore, we are taught, no peace will be ours unless we find the means of reducing these demands.

Have I become entirely ready to have God remove all my defects of character?

Today I Pray
May I make no unrealistic demands on life, which, because of their grandiosity, cannot be met. May I place no excessive demands on others, which, when they are not fulfilled, leave me disappointed and let down.

Today I will Remember.
The set-up for a let-down.

[Ken L]

March 1 Reflection for the Day

Now that we’re free and no longer gambling, we have so much more control over our thinking. More than anything, we’re able to alter our attitudes. Some members of Gamblers Anonymous, in fact, choose to think of the letters of G.A. as an abbreviation for “Great Attitude.” In the bad old days, I almost always responded to any optimistic or positive statement with, “Yes but…” Today, in contrast, I’m learning to eliminate that negative phase from my vocabulary.

Am I working to change my attitude? Am I determined to “accentuate the positive”?

Today I Pray
May I find that healing and strength that God provides to those who stay near Him. May I keep to the spiritual guidelines of the G.A. Program, considering the Steps, taking the Steps – one by one – then practising them again and again. In this is my salvation.

Today I will Remember.
To practise at least one Step.

[Ken L]

March 2 Reflection for the Day

Why don’t I spend part of today thinking about my assets, rather than my liabilities? Why not think about victories, instead of defeats – about the ways in which I am gentle and kind? It’s always been my tendency to fall into a sort of cynical self-hypnosis, putting derogatory labels on practically everything I’ve done, said, or felt. Just for today, I’ll spend a quiet half hour trying to gain a more positive perspective on my life.

Do I have the courage to change the things I can?

Today I Pray
Through quietness and a reassessment of myself, may I develop a more positive attitude. If I am a child of God, created in God’s image, there must be goodness in me. I will think about that goodness and the ways it manifests itself. I will stop putting myself down, even in my secret thoughts. I will respect what is God’s. I will respect myself.

Today I will Remember.
Self-respect is respect for God.

[Ken L]

MARCH 3 Reflection for the Day

I’ve begun to understand myself better since I’ve come to Gamblers Anonymous. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that opinions aren’t facts. Just because I feel that a thing is so doesn’t necessarily make it so. “Men are not worried by things,” wrote the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “but by their ideas about things. When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us not blame others, but rather ourselves. That is: our ideas about things.”

Do I believe that I can never entirely lose what I have learned during my recovery?

Today I Pray
May I learn to sort out realities from my ideas about those realities. May I understand that situations, things – even people – take on the colours and dimensions of my attitudes about them.

Today I Will Remember
To sort the real from the unreal

[Ken L]

MARCH 4 Reflection for the Day

We may not know any specifics about the activities of today; we may not know whether we’ll be alone or with others. We may feel the day contains too much time – or not enough. We may be facing tasks we’re eager to complete, or tasks we’ve been resisting. Though the details of each person’s day differ, each day holds one similarity for us all; each of us has the opportunity to choose to think positive thoughts. The choice depends less on our outside activities than on our inner commitment.

Can I accept that I alone have the power to control my attitude?

Today I Pray
May I keep the fire of inner commitment alive through this whole, glorious day, whether my activities are a succession of humdrum tasks or free-form and creative. May I choose to make this a good day for me, and for those around me.

Today I Will Remember
Keep the commitment.

[Ken L]

MARCH 5 Reflection for the Day

Before I became clean in Gamblers Anonymous, I blamed all my problems on other people, or on places and things. Now I’m learning to look squarely at each difficulty, not seeking whom to “blame,” but to discover how my attitude helped create my problem or aggravate it. I must also learn to face the consequences of my own actions and words, and to correct myself when I’m wrong.

Do I practise the Tenth Step by continuing to take my personal inventory? When I am wrong, do I promptly admit it?

Today I Pray
May I know the blessed relief and unburdening that come when I admit I have done something wrong. May I learn – perhaps for the first time in my entire life – to take responsibility for my own actions and to face the consequences. May I learn again how to match actions with consequences.

Today I Will Remember
To take responsibility for my own actions.

[Ken L]

MARCH 6 Reflection for the Day

There is no advantage, no profit, and certainly no growth when I deceive myself merely to escape the consequences of my own mistakes. When I realize this, I know I’ll be making progress. “We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us,” wrote Thomas Merton in No Man Is an Island. “But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.”

Am I true to myself?

Today I Pray
May I count on my Higher Power to help me carry out the truth as I see it. May I never duck a consequence again. Consequence-ducking became a parlour game for addictive gamblers like me, until we lost all sense of relationship between action and outcome. Now that I am healing, please God, restore my balance.

Today I Will Remember
Match the act with the consequence.

March 7 Reflection for the Day

It’s time for me to realize that my attitude – towards the life I’m living and the people in it – can have a tangible, measurable and profound effect on what happens to me day by day. If I expect good, then good will surely come to me.
And if I try each day to base my attitude and point of view on a sound spiritual foundation, I know it will change all the circumstances of my life for the better, too.

Do I accept the fact that I have been given only a daily reprieve that is contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual condition?

Today I Pray
Since my illness was spiritual – as well as emotional – may I mend spiritually through daily contact with God. May I find a corner of quiet within me where I can spend a few moments with God. May God’s will be known to me.

Today I will Remember.
To spend a quiet moment with God.

[Ken L]

MARCH 8 Reflection for the Day

Merely changing my behaviour, and what I say and do, doesn’t prove there’s been a change in my actual inner attitude. I’m deceiving myself if I believe I can somehow completely disguise my true feelings. They’ll somehow come through, prolonging the difficulties in my relationships with others. I have to avoid half-measures in getting rid of the troublesome emotions I’ve been trying to hide.

Have I taken an honest inventory of myself?

Today I Pray
May I know that feelings will come out somehow – sometimes barely disguised as behaviour that I cannot always understand. But that perhaps is more acceptable to me than the root emotion that caused it. May I be completely and vigilantly honest with myself. May I be given the insight that comes through depending upon a Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember
Feelings can come out “sideways.”

[Ken L]

MARCH 9 Reflection for the Day

We learn in Gamblers Anonymous that, as we grow spiritually, we find that our old attitudes towards our instinctual drives need to undergo drastic revisions. Our demands for emotional security and wealth, for personal prestige and power, all have to be tempered and redirected. We learn that the full satisfaction of these demands cannot be the sole end and aim of our lives. But when we’re willing to place spiritual growth first – then, and only then, do we have a real chance to grow in healthy awareness and mature love.

Am I willing to put spiritual growth first?

Today I Pray
May my development as a spiritual person temper my habitual hankerings for material security. May I understand that the only real security in life is spiritual. If I have faith in my Higher Power, these revisions in my attitudes will follow. May I grow first in spiritual awareness.

Today I Will Remember
Value the life of the spirit.